ST. LOUIS — As Hunter Haight darted onto the ice Thursday for his rookie lap, a rite of passage for any NHL debut, and got set to take his first shot in warmups for the Minnesota Wild, the moment temporarily became too much.
“I just made sure to hit the net,” he joked after the game, saying he blacked out for the shot.
Hunter Haight rookie lap!!!!!!#EasyToCelebrate | @budlight pic.twitter.com/8z09pHUBW4
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 10, 2025
Haight, 21, then took a peek into the stands at Enterprise Center, trying to find his family, who were in Section 115. There was his father, Steve, an Ontario provincial police officer who used to lead a tactical rescue team out of London. As kids, Hunter and his older brother, Griffin, 23, would tag along to work with their dad, marveling at the armored cars and activity at the station.
Griffin followed in Dad’s footsteps, recently hired by the London Police. But Hunter, who grew up idolizing Travis Konecny, Lawson Crouse and Bo Horvat, had other plans.
“There was nothing stopping him from getting here,” Steve said during the game, smiling.
“He was going to be in the NHL since he was this big,” he added, pointing at his knees.
Haight’s mother, Amy, was also beaming. So was his girlfriend, Brie, 20. The two met as kids, chasing each other around at their families’ cottages. Brie, a former gymnast, taught Hunter how to do flips on a trampoline. They started dating six years ago. Brie’s and Hunter’s parents made the two-hour drive from London to Toronto on Thursday morning to catch a flight to St. Louis for the milestone game, a 5-0 Wild win over the St. Louis Blues.
“A surreal moment,” Brie said.
Haight, who found out he made the team on Tuesday because of a Nico Sturm injury, said it all hit him after warmups, as he was on the bench and looking around the arena. “It was just kind of the reality check of like, ‘I’m dressed for an NHL game,’” Haight said. “Just excited and proud. It’s about playing hockey after that.”
Haight played pretty well in his first game, logging 10 minutes, 27 seconds as the center on the fourth line. He was fast on the forecheck, picked up two hits and won 62 percent of his draws (5 of 8). “A really, really mature game,” teammate Matt Boldy said.
Haight, a second-round pick coming off his first pro season in AHL Iowa, had an impressive training camp. But the 5-foot-10, 183-pound center was one of the last cuts Sunday, and coach John Hynes and the staff told him he was “right there” and not to change anything.
Haight wasn’t back in Iowa for more than a day before he got the call from Iowa GM Matt Hendricks that he was headed back up. Sturm, the veteran fourth-line center and penalty killer, had a setback with a back issue that had bothered him throughout camp. He’s out long-term, and Hunter was next man up.
“(Hendricks) said, ‘Turn around and head to Minnesota,’” Steve said. “‘You’ve got your call.’”
Haight called his parents to let them know, then former teammates and coaches, like Saginaw’s Chris Lazary, who watched the NHL debut at home with his family.
“So happy for him,” Lazary said. “He’s earned everything he’s got.”
Haight spent two years with OHL Saginaw, helping lead the team to the Memorial Cup championship in 2024. Lazary was most impressed with how diligently and unselfishly Haight developed from a top-line scorer into a responsible, third-line, two-way center.
And Haight’s advice to his coach at a pivotal moment during that Cup season sparked their run.
The Spirit had lost six of seven in late October. Lazary was stressed and felt he might have been taking it out too much on the team. He saw Haight walking down the hallway by his office and called him in.
“I want the truth,” Lazary said. “Do you think I’m being too negative?”
Haight told him he understood how badly Lazary wanted to win. Then he thought back to a memory of his father.
“I talked with my dad about it, and he’s special forces,” Haight told Lazary. “And he said, ‘You know, if we don’t all attack a situation together and if we’re not all positive, we can’t get the outcome.’”
Lazary was blown away. He relaxed a little bit and preached togetherness through the struggles. The team won 10 in a row after that. He’d think about that talk with Haight at any tense moment down the stretch.
“It’s hard to have that conversation with your coach,” Lazary said. “A lot of guys would just say, ‘Oh no, we’re good.’ He had enough gumption to tell the truth and be honest. … It struck a chord where it changed and kind of calmed everybody down. We went on a big run, and every time we were going to get worked up or get negative, I would look at Hunts and it would remind me of that story.”
Lazary and his staff gave Haight a letter for many reasons. His mature approach and infectious work ethic. How clean and tidy he’d keep his gear when others were messy. How coachable he was. Lazary recalled a moment during that championship season when he talked with Haight about adjusting his role to a checking line.
“I was like, ‘We need you to score, but I also need a guy I can trust to put out on the ice,’” Lazary said. “And Hunts, he never blinked an eye. He always just wanted to win so bad. He’s just like, ‘What do you need?’ In junior, the high-end guys, they’re not as easy to deal with all the time like he was, and I always appreciated that about him.”
The Spirit had their share of high-end guys, including Zayne Parekh (taken No. 9 by the Calgary Flames in 2024) and Michael Misa (No. 2 by the San Jose Sharks this year). Lazary had Misa and Haight room together with the same billet family so Haight could show Misa “how to be a pro.” Misa, one of the rare players to be given exceptional player status from Hockey Canada, was taken under Haight’s wing.
“Copy him,” Lazary told Misa.
Haight’s coach in Iowa, Brett McLean, said the rookie acted like a pro from the day he arrived in Des Moines. He could tell by how Haight attacked drills and how open he was to improving in areas like faceoffs. Haight quickly earned the trust of the staff to play in all situations. He also scored 20 goals.
“Credit to my mom and dad, how they raised me,” Haight said. “It was always about effort and attitude, going into everything with a good mindset. Coming into last year, it was learn and take everything in, and attack in the right way.”
Haight has worked out in the summers with the likes of Boone Jenner, Jordan Kyrou and Horvat. There were more heralded prospects in the Wild’s training camp, including first-round picks Danila Yurov and Liam Ohgren. But while Ohgren and Yurov were given every chance to earn a top-six spot, their camps were relatively underwhelming. They both made the team, but Haight made the biggest impression.
Hunter Haight (left) impressed teammates and coaches with his preseason play. (Bailey Hillesheim / Getty Images)
“He’s a naturally competitive player,” Hynes said. “He’s got good hockey sense. He’s come back a bit stronger — that physical maturity. The work he put in, he looked like a young player that wasn’t in training camp to be in training camp. He was at training camp with a fire in his eyes to be able to compete for a spot.”
With Sturm expected to miss significant time and potentially needing surgery, Haight could be here a while. His parents are making the trip to Minnesota to catch home games Saturday and Monday before returning to Ontario. They’ll stay in the same hotel as Haight, near the Mall of America.
“Never been there,” Amy said.
Haight, for now, is along for the ride. Asked what he’d remember most about Thursday’s debut, he smiled.
“Just a great feeling, to finally play in that game,” Haight said. “To be part of the NHL officially. Just carry this momentum and build off it so I can stay up here.”